After a summer of record rains, floods, hailstorms and tornadoes, Italy’s hotel industry is seeking to claw back exasperated customers by offering discounts for bad weather.

The innovative plan follows a disastrous season at northern Italian resorts, which suffered more days of rain than sun in July and saw August all but wiped out.

The Veneto region was the latest victim Wednesday as violent storms broke out, with one house bursting into flames after a lightning strike.

To try to tempt back wet and bedraggled customers, hotels across Lignano Sabbiadoro in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region are offering 50 per cent off room rates in September on any day it rains if customers book in for three days.

“We are trying to make up for an unlucky season,” Luigi Sutto, the manager of the Athena hotel, told the Italian newspaper La Stampa.

“In the absence of any alternative to offer people who arrive and find water, we are focusing on a delicate argument: the wallet.”

Elsewhere in northern Italy, the river Seveso in Milan has repeatedly burst its banks over the summer, leaving large areas of the city under water. In Liguria, tourists took cover from tornadoes off the coast.

On Aug 15, a day when Italians traditionally enjoy midsummer picnics, snowploughs were needed in the Bergamo area to clear the streets of piles of hailstones.

Four people were killed this month when a flash flood swept participants at a village festival near Venice into a river. More than 20 others were injured as the sudden torrent swept away cars and kiosks.

At Jesolo in the Veneto region, hoteliers have responded to the freak weather by offering insurance against downpours. “Those who book online are often unable to cancel, so instead you can pay a euro extra and insure yourself against bad weather,” said Michele Bergamo, the manager of the OroBeach and Greenbeach lidos.

At the Tuscan resort of Forte dei Marmi, the mayor unsuccessfully appealed to the Italian government to let children take September off school to allow them to try to get back some of the sunny days they lost at the beach.

Meanwhile, the Villa d’Alassio hotel in Lazio in central Italy has offered 20 per cent off every day of rain, while in Versilia in Tuscany, the Savoy Hotel opted for 10 per cent.

“It’s an incentive for the Italians who come here just to be by the sea,” said Iacopo Ciardella, the manager.

“Foreigners are less worried. If it’s bad weather they don’t lose heart but rent a car and take advantage by visiting a town or a museum. The Uffizi Galleries are always beautiful, whether it rains or not.”

But one hotelier said there was no point offering discounts or insurance or incentives. “On the second day of rain my clients go home because there is nothing to do,” said Mattia Detoni at the Olivo di Arco hotel on Lake Garda.

“The problem isn’t the price, I could even charge them euros 20 a night. But for what? To stay shut in their rooms?”